I’m at 10 mins and enjoying your er ramblings? I mean that in a nice way!
I think you have touched upon something in your comparison of Thiel as a kind of religious leader.
To explain my thoughts a little sorry this might be quite long!
Many moons ago when I worked in sales and then later in higher education I occasionally ran into IT issues (particularly when lecturing at a small uni) - if it was everyday stuff then usually that was all dealt with speedily and without fuss but the minute I asked for anything even slightly out of the ordinary the shutters came down. Case in point I wanted to introduce the graphical coding software Processing on the syllabus and enquired about the possibility. Bang! No! We won’t run that it might compromise security etc etc. “even if it runs in Java native on Mac and we can block server access etc” No! Thou Shalt Not Run an API on our Macs it is heresy! And there was me thinking I might improve the syllabus and teach Fine Art students some beautiful simple introductory coding That avenue was closed.
It struck me that they were like monks who acted like the gatekeepers to the “hidden knowledge”. I think for at least a decade from 95 on web pages were terrible to use not because there weren’t creative people designing them but because the monks were seeing to it that they and they alone knew how it all worked and they were happy it worked in a fashion and we all got used to seeing the web the way that suited them. a bit like medieval illuminated manuscripts which were as we know were written (coded) in Latin so that only those who served the church or had an education ie monarchs could understand it and use “the good book” as weapon to control people who were still largely wedded to the old pagan ideas.
Thiel et al are a few stages on but I think there is a continuity here - I have no doubt that they have built incredible softwares but the problem is that it’s always been behind closed doors (like cloistered monks) , algorithms coded in new forms of “Latin” that we mere mortals don’t understand - they built exactly what they wanted without any regard for the effect it would have on society. Huge data cathedrals towering over us all - the enormous power this has given them is warping everything around them it puts them into heavy solipsistic territory because everything single thing they do effects the economy , media , politics , everything. Just like the power the church had in medieval Europe.
The techbros egos are distended, hubris leaks out of every orifice and pore like Bishops, Pontiffs and Popes pronouncing this and that.
Unfortunately for us their developments have come at a time of libertarianism , stagnating or collapsing economies and desperate politics and so rather than use their undisputed skills and with their warped sense of self they are creating a reality in their image and see absolutely no problem with what they’re doing. They justify their position of importance by trying reinvent Monarchism a la Jarvin - shimmering cities in Greenland where only billionaires can live.
I’m not religious but God help us all.
PS I don’t think that all IT workers are like monks - what I mean is the systems in which they work and the power handed them by the owners of those systems has lead us down a path…
There is NOTHING that Peter Thiel has said, that others have not already said, and better than Thiel, that the doomed society he fantasizes has any bearing on reality
He has drunk to the fill the lethal Kool-Aid of Silicon Valley- in which he is totally embedded, and a confirmation bias that will never admit error or misinterpretation.
That he is now TWICE INFECTED, because of his obscene wealth only makes the pit blacker and deeper. It may not even help further that his narcissistic tropes- totally in step with another well-known narcissist in the Oval Office,
have already cut him off from society generally and certain personal habits in particular!!!
That his ‘solution’ is a nightmare straight out of George Orwell or Ray Bradbury is now common knowledge, and gaining acceleration as the Fascist Cheetoh administration puts into cruel practice word for word his Borgian concepts- those being an elite group of guardian overlords who are hellbent on ridding
the planet of ‘undesirables,’ - namely US and those like us!!
Very interesting, I think you would find the book "The Internet Is Not The Answer" a good read ;)
I’m at 10 mins and enjoying your er ramblings? I mean that in a nice way!
I think you have touched upon something in your comparison of Thiel as a kind of religious leader.
To explain my thoughts a little sorry this might be quite long!
Many moons ago when I worked in sales and then later in higher education I occasionally ran into IT issues (particularly when lecturing at a small uni) - if it was everyday stuff then usually that was all dealt with speedily and without fuss but the minute I asked for anything even slightly out of the ordinary the shutters came down. Case in point I wanted to introduce the graphical coding software Processing on the syllabus and enquired about the possibility. Bang! No! We won’t run that it might compromise security etc etc. “even if it runs in Java native on Mac and we can block server access etc” No! Thou Shalt Not Run an API on our Macs it is heresy! And there was me thinking I might improve the syllabus and teach Fine Art students some beautiful simple introductory coding That avenue was closed.
It struck me that they were like monks who acted like the gatekeepers to the “hidden knowledge”. I think for at least a decade from 95 on web pages were terrible to use not because there weren’t creative people designing them but because the monks were seeing to it that they and they alone knew how it all worked and they were happy it worked in a fashion and we all got used to seeing the web the way that suited them. a bit like medieval illuminated manuscripts which were as we know were written (coded) in Latin so that only those who served the church or had an education ie monarchs could understand it and use “the good book” as weapon to control people who were still largely wedded to the old pagan ideas.
Thiel et al are a few stages on but I think there is a continuity here - I have no doubt that they have built incredible softwares but the problem is that it’s always been behind closed doors (like cloistered monks) , algorithms coded in new forms of “Latin” that we mere mortals don’t understand - they built exactly what they wanted without any regard for the effect it would have on society. Huge data cathedrals towering over us all - the enormous power this has given them is warping everything around them it puts them into heavy solipsistic territory because everything single thing they do effects the economy , media , politics , everything. Just like the power the church had in medieval Europe.
The techbros egos are distended, hubris leaks out of every orifice and pore like Bishops, Pontiffs and Popes pronouncing this and that.
Unfortunately for us their developments have come at a time of libertarianism , stagnating or collapsing economies and desperate politics and so rather than use their undisputed skills and with their warped sense of self they are creating a reality in their image and see absolutely no problem with what they’re doing. They justify their position of importance by trying reinvent Monarchism a la Jarvin - shimmering cities in Greenland where only billionaires can live.
I’m not religious but God help us all.
PS I don’t think that all IT workers are like monks - what I mean is the systems in which they work and the power handed them by the owners of those systems has lead us down a path…
PPS sorry for rambling!
There is NOTHING that Peter Thiel has said, that others have not already said, and better than Thiel, that the doomed society he fantasizes has any bearing on reality
He has drunk to the fill the lethal Kool-Aid of Silicon Valley- in which he is totally embedded, and a confirmation bias that will never admit error or misinterpretation.
That he is now TWICE INFECTED, because of his obscene wealth only makes the pit blacker and deeper. It may not even help further that his narcissistic tropes- totally in step with another well-known narcissist in the Oval Office,
have already cut him off from society generally and certain personal habits in particular!!!
That his ‘solution’ is a nightmare straight out of George Orwell or Ray Bradbury is now common knowledge, and gaining acceleration as the Fascist Cheetoh administration puts into cruel practice word for word his Borgian concepts- those being an elite group of guardian overlords who are hellbent on ridding
the planet of ‘undesirables,’ - namely US and those like us!!